1A Blog Asks: What Kind Of Car Did You Drive In High School?

My high school vehicle was a 1987 Dodge Ram 50. It was my pride and joy that I poured thousands of hours of work into. I still regret selling it to this day because it was near perfection when I sold it. Several years ago, this is how I found it.

46 comments to 1A Blog Asks: What Kind Of Car Did You Drive In High School?

Great car Joe! An acquaintance of mine in high school had a bright yellow one of those. He jumped it in the air “Dukes of Hazard style” going WAY too fast on a hilly road. He landed hard enough to fold the nose up and push the centers of the front struts through the hood. Overall, it was a bad idea for a wide variety of reasons.

I had a 1968 Mustang. It was a notch back with a 6cyl 200 and auto trans, whch was a good thing. It kept me from killing myself. In college I got a ’72 Mustang with a 351 Cleveland. Weight distribution seemed to be off because it would almost always spin the TA-50’s that I had on the back of it… go figure!

I found a photo of my ’72 last weekend and now my 15 year old son hates me for ever selling it.

Some day I will get another vintage Mustang, however it will have to be a convertable because I really like the feel of the wind. I got my Iron Butt on my Harley traveling on only 2 lane roads (no wide or divided highways). 1046 miles in less than 24 hours (700 miles in cold rain) and I was ready to do it again the next weekend! Me, the motor and the road. Just can’t beat that!

Tom, you are a tougher man than I! I built myself a motorcycle which you can see Here, and it turns out that I enjoyed building the bike about 100x more than actually riding it! After about 50 miles, I’m ready to leave the bike on the side of the road and walk. Maybe I need a softer seat. lol.

The bike you built looks amazing – great work! IT is very impressive, but it’s not the rider, its the bike. I have a FXDWG – that is the Wide Glide. I have always admired the racer bikes (rice rockets) for their performance, however they don’t fit what I want from a bike.

I don’t know how to post a photo here, but if you google photos for “2003 fxdwg dyna wide glide” you will see. I’m taller than most so I extended the forward controls another 3 inches. It’s like driving a 1450 cubic inch Lazy Boy! :-0

Thanks for the compliments Tom! That’s a sweet looking bike you have as well. Maybe I would enjoy riding a Harley / Cruiser style more than my current bike for the comforts. It may be worth reviewing again once the warm weather comes back around again; regretfully, I have never ridden a Harley before.

That is a tragedy Jerry! Last year we had a great local Pontiac club help us with our 1A Summer Car Show, and I got to take a 66 GTO 389 4-speed for a spin through town. It definitely made me wonder why the heck I have never owned a GTO. The 64-67’s are a beautiful body style for sure.

1967 Chrysler 300 with 440 High Performance engine & Modified 4 barrel holley Carb. Rode very nice even at 140mph but was getting a little foatie after that. Never did find the top speed; it was a little too un-nevering to go any faster on two lanes.

John,
I feel your Vega pain. My 71 had the driver door fall off (!)at 18,000 miles and had NUMEROUS major engine problems without ever seeing 50K miles. I sold the thing to a guy who put a V8 in it. To this day I will not own a GM product because of their failure to stand behind the Vega.

1968 Volkswagen Square back with the squeeky breaks. Tricked it out motor and customised (wow had the coolest 8track around) landscape paint of hawaii; American racing rims…heavy little suckers. It got stolen and totaled….sigh!

LOL…. A few cars… graduated HS in 1974, I had a 1956 MGA, a 1962 Corvair, 1964 Corvair, and a 1965 Corvair. (The MGA was unsafe at any speed!) The Corvairs handled and stopped better than any other car in its class of the time. Goodness only knows what Ralph Nader drove! lol Thanks for the memories!

Thanks for the comment! This is yet another shock for me today because I would have expected the Corvairs to be WAY scarier than an MGA! My world is now upside down because an MGA is on my “must have” list. Maybe my list needs a review

a 1957 Austin of England A -35. 2d 4 cyclinder 5 speed. Dad bought it for 50.00 bucks It was cool to drive something that was one yr younger than I was. It looked like the old Englsih taxi only olot smaller.

My first car was a 1962 Ford Falcon that was my grandparents car. It had a 170 cu. in. 6 cylinder engine and 2 speed automatic trans. I used it to get my driver’s license when I turned 16 in 1972 and drove it to school my junior year. My grandma sold it in 1993. In 2000 I found it and bought it back. It was in sad shape by then so I took it completely apart and customized it with a 5.0 EFI engine & AOD trans, shaved door handles, nosed & decked, Granada disc brakes & 8″ rear axle. It’s painted bright red with a pearl white top, and Mustang Bullitt wheels. It’s a lot more fun to drive now!

1967 toyota crown. it was white with red interior. The interior was sun rotted so with the help of my mother we redid the seats in a leopard print. it was and coolest car around, or so i thought at the time.

guess I’m a youngin'; 87 Ford Taurus in a beautiful mix of faded metalic brown and rust. gave it this beauty for a basketcase 84 2.8L Camaro “ZF” hardtop. I spent more money on trying to get the beast to pass emissions than I did buying the car….

I drove a 53 Buick Roadmaster. It was Black and you could see waves of heat coming off of it when it sat in the sun. Now that I think about I never really appreciated the fact it had a gray cloth interior.

John, you’ve mentioned a car that I had to look up to figure out what the heck it was. Somewhere in my past I had heard that name before, but I had really no idea what they looked like. The TS Coupe’s were almost Karmann Ghia-esque and the 4-speed on the tree is amazing! Much like a Karmann Ghia, 85 mph must be a scary endeavor. Thanks for the education!

my first ride was a 1966 Chevelle wagon with a transplanted C20 truck 290 6 cyl and 2speed Powerglyde transmission. My father took my hard earned $400.00 bucks one day and came back with that. (He knew I’d been eye-balling a rot box plastic filled Malibu down the street with a 400 4spd in it that would have probably killed me!)

In my Jr year in HS (1971) I purchased a two-door 1966 Malibu with 283 and 4 on the floor. That car was in cherry condition! and I had a great time with it. Bucket seats, AM/FM radio, no A/C, Cragar mags and glass packs behind chrome headers. Just after graduation I sold it in order to buy a car that would get better fuel mileage…a 1971 Chevy Vega. What a regrettable decision!! Great blog question. I enjoyed reading the responses.

My first car in high school was actually shared with my mother, a 69 VW Beetle. Boy, if she only new what I was doing with that car after she came home from work. We kept the car about 10 years, replaced the motor and sold it to a neighbor who kept it 2 more years, who then sold it to his brother. The car stayed in town for about 14 years! I knew it was ours because I had an accident and lock bumpers with another Beetle leaving it with permanent scars.